496 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. I., No. 17. 



tained, among them Tauride;a spilota, Uranidea gra- 

 cilis, and several examples of Triglopsis Thompsoni 

 (heretofore found only in the stomachs of fishes). 

 An undescribed variety of Mysis relicta was also very 

 abundant. The commonest copepod was Epischura 

 lacustris, a very peculiar new genus and species. A 

 ISTitella was dredged here at a depth of thirty fath- 

 oms. 



In addition to these operations upon Lake Michi- 

 gan, ten of the lakes of Lake and McHenry counties 

 were sounded and thoroughly dredged, and full col- 

 lections made of the plant and animal life of each, 

 from the shore to tlie deepest water. These lakes 

 were shallow, rarely exceeding a depth of fifty feet ; 

 and for purposes of comparison with deeper waters 

 of the same series, Geneva Lake in Wisconsin, hav- 

 ing a depth of twenty-three fathoms, was thoroughly 

 searched with dredge and trawl. Later an especially 

 minute and exhaustive study of both the plant and 

 animal life of Cedar Lake was made, not only for the 

 purpose of determining the contents of its waters, 

 but also to afford material for a careful study of the 

 entire sj'stem of interactions obtaining among them. 



The determination of these collections has but 

 just been commenced, but some general results have 

 already been reached. It was found, that, with the 

 exception of Lake Michigan, the deeper interior por- 

 tions of these lakes were largely barren of either 

 plant or animal life, probably ninety per cent of their 

 inhabitants being collected within a few rods of the 

 shore. This was apparently due chiefly to the pecul- 

 iar character of the bottom, which was here a very 

 deep, soft, almost impalpable ooze, consisting of the 

 finest particles of the surface-soil washed in from 

 the adjacent country. No forms peculiar to the 

 deeper water were found in any lake except Michigan. 

 A species of Lumbriculus and larvae of Chironomus 

 were the only bottom animals common in the inte- 

 rior of the smaller lakes (and these occurred equally 

 at all depths), except such as ranged from the sur- 

 face downward. Larvae of Corethra and many 

 Entomostraca were found in countless numbers at or 

 near the bottom by day, but rose to the surface at 

 night. 



■ PUBLIC AND PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS. 



Davenport academy of natural sciences. 



Belies from southern mounds. — Observing in 

 Science, p. 349, a notice of a quantity of astragali 

 of deer, etc., collected from mounds in Ohio, I would 

 call attention to the occurrence of similar objects in 

 southern mounds, with, however, a very interesting 

 peculiarity not mentioned in connection with the 

 Ohio specimens. 



We have in the museum of the academy some 

 thirty of those astragali exhumed by Capt. W. P. 

 Hall from mounds in Arkansas, where he has, in 

 several instances, met with a considerable number 

 arranged in a row near a skeleton. 



Twenty-two oi: those we have are ground down 

 at the two ends, forming two faces approximately 

 parallel to each other, and cutting away enough to 

 reduce the bone, as a whole, to something nearly ap- 

 proaching a cubical form; i.e., reducing the length to 

 about equal the width of the bone. In some cases 

 the sides, which are naturally nearly parallel to each 

 other, are ground o& a little also, to make them more 

 perfectly flat. The convex side is not ground at all 

 in any of these specimens, nor is the opposite or con- 

 cave side. 



The specimens in this collection must be, some 

 of them, from larger animals than even the elk, — 

 possibly the buffalo, — as they measure from three- 



fourths of an Inch to one and three-fourths.in widtli ; 

 and the largest must have been at least three and 

 one-fourth inches long before being subjected to the 

 process of grinding into the desired form. Were 

 they kept as charms, mementos or trophies of the 

 chase perhaps, instruments for gambling? — who will 

 explain ? W. H. Pkatt. 



Cranial deformation. — There are now in the 

 museum thirty-three skulls from the mounds of the 

 lower Mississippi valley, — Tennessee and Arkansas, 

 — of which a considerable number, though not the 

 greater portion, present the peculiarity of an occipito- 

 frontal compression, in several instances so great as 

 to cause the transverse considerably to exceed the 

 longitudinal diameter. Four of these crania give the 

 following measurements in inches: — 



riet.ll diameter . . . 6.28 



while the normal form seems to give a length exceed- 

 ing the breadth by an average of nearly one inch. 



All of those so very much compressed are, judging 

 from the condition of the teeth, the heads of young 

 persons, say, from fifteen to twenty-five years. Several 

 of those of older individuals exhibit the same flatten- 

 ing in a less degree, as if partially outgrown after the 

 compression had been discontinued. 



In those most flattened, the front especially appears 

 to have been confined by a rigid flat body, as the fore- 

 head presents a large surface, which is almost a per- 

 fect plane ; while the back, where the compressor has 

 been applied, is in some instances slightly concave 

 where the sutures unite. 



These skulls are rather thin, and quite well pre- 

 served. They are found with the prehistoric pot- 

 tery; and not unfrequeutly the very large vessels — 

 fifteen inches or more in diameter — contain one or 

 even two crania, and the other bones of the skeleton. 

 W. H. Pbatt. 



Peabody museum of American archaeology, Cambridge, Mass. 



Mound explorations in the Little JMiami valley, Ohio. 

 — A group of mounds on the estate of Mr. Turner, 

 in Anderson township, was systematically explored 

 last season by Messrs. Putnam and Metz, and a care- 

 ful survey made by a civil engineer, Mr. Hasbrook. 

 The group embraces 13 mounds and 2 earth-circles, 

 all enclosed by 2 circular embankments, one of them 

 on a hill, and connected with the other by a graded 

 way. The altar-mounds mentioned in Science, No. 

 12, were found here. The larger of two mounds 

 within the earthwork on the hill, a plan of which 

 was published by Col. Whittlesey in 18.50, proved a 

 most interesting structure, unlike any thing hereto- 

 fore discovered. It contained a small central tumu- 

 lus, surrounded by a carefully built stone wall, and 

 covered in by a platform of stones, over which was 

 a mass of clay. On this wall were two depressions, 

 in each of which a body had been laid; and outside 

 the wall, in tlie surrounding clay, were found several 

 skeletons, one of them lying upon a platform of 

 stones. With these skeletons were found a copper 

 celt, ornaments made of copper and shell, and two 

 large sea-shells. With each of three of the skeletons 

 were a pair of spool-shaped ear-ornaments. The 

 thirteen mounds within the large enclosure differ so 

 much from each other in their structure, that de- 

 tailed descriptions of each would have to be given, 

 in order to convey a correct idea of this singular and 

 interesting group. Under one of the altar-mounds a 

 large ash-pit, six feet deep, and similar to those in 

 the ancient cemetery at Madisonville, was discovered ; 



